Frailty

An impressive debut on the theme of righteousness, but it's nearly spoiled by a few late-coming ambiguities. By Paul Byrnes

FrailtyDirected by Bill Paxton Written by Brett HanleyRated MACinemas everywhere

Bill Paxton makes his directing debut with Frailty and I admit I had doubts going in. There have been many actors who have made good or great directors - Erich von Stroheim, Orson Welles, Charles Laughton, Clint Eastwood - but most of them were good actors first.

As an actor, Paxton has something, but consistency isn't it. He has been at his best in smaller movies, often playing small-town guys facing big challenges, as in One False Move or A Simple Plan, but the bigger the picture, the more wooden he can become. Who can forget his corny line-readings in Titanic, playing the head of the salvage team, or his "We've got debris" excitement in Twister. I was never sure if the gormlessness was part of the characters he was playing or the reason he was cast.

In fact, I think it's both. He has become a successful actor partly because he can play characters who make brains look overrated. And he believes in himself on screen, even if we may not. That is touching, almost childlike and it makes him likeable. His appeal is a pure heart, not technique - a bit like Keanu Reeves. In fact, both are probably better technical actors than they look because the blank facade hides what they're doing. That's assuming they are doing something.

In Frailty, Paxton not only directs but acts, so there was a double threat. But he does both with so much commitment that the film is a revelation. It won't push him into the ranks of the director/stars such as Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner, but it's not conceived as a star turn - unlike Braveheart and Dances With Wolves. There's no sign of vanity in his role as the father in Frailty, but quite a few signs of a strong sensibility. The film is weirder and darker than I expected and more engrossing. It should establish his reputation as a director to watch - at least when working off a strong script, which this is.

Religious mania is a rich topic in American life, but not a popular one. Hollywood, largely established by Jews who had direct or indirect knowledge of persecution, was always reluctant to invite trouble from the powerful Christian lobbies and not much has changed since the corporations took over. A glaring exception was in 1955, when Laughton cast Robert Mitchum as a homicidal preacher in Night of The Hunter. It's the film Frailty most resembles - a debt screenwriter Brent Hanley, also making his debut, has acknowledged.

Both have a maniac threatening two children - the difference here is the maniac is the father of the children and he's not motivated by money.

He believes that God is guiding his blood-stained hand.

This is where Paxton's aura of self-belief becomes so useful. The man is ordinary, a car mechanic in east Texas, raising his two boys alone since his wife died in childbirth. He's a kind man and there seems to be nothing remarkable about him, but one night he awakens the boys - nine-year-old Adam and 12-year-old Fenton - and explains that an angel has just appeared to him. His tone is calm as he says that God wants him to kill demons who pass as people. In coming days, he has more revelations and shows the boys three "magical" weapons that God has indicated they are to use. He explains that he will soon be receiving the list of names of the first seven demons. The boys are to help him in this secret and sacred work, which is not to be confused with willful murder. "We destroy demons. Destroying demons is a good thing. Killing people is bad."

The younger boy (Jeremy Sumpter) accepts this distinction at face value, but Fenton (Matt O'Leary) is old enough to realise what's happening, especially after the first demon is dispatched before their eyes.

Paxton's direction is very spare, with sure control of the mounting sense of dread. His most important decision in filming such an extraordinary story, with its upsetting mixture of children and violence, is to keep it real but understated. The killings are disturbing, but they are mostly unseen. We hear them, but the camera initially dwells more on the faces of the two boys, watching in total confusion as the father they love and respect does unspeakable things. That Paxton the actor is able to convince them and us that he believes he is doing good works shows he's a better actor than I, at least, had credited. This is the best I've seen him and the two boys are also superb.

The film has two time periods, separated by 25 years, which allows the script to be structured as both a mystery and a thriller. In the enveloping story, set in the present, Matthew McConaughey walks into FBI headquarters in Dallas and tells agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) that he knows who's responsible for a series of unsolved murders and will show Doyle where the bodies are buried. As they drive, the film flashes back to the period when childhood ended for these two boys.

For most of its running, Frailty is compelling and original because it's driven by the idea of righteousness. Most movie killers are simply evil, even the best ones, such as Mitchum's singing preacher, but Paxton's father believes completely in the rightness of what he's doing. Where I parted company with the movie was when it suggested those he kills really are demons. When he touches his victims, he sees quick flashes of the crimes they may have committed, but the movie doesn't clarify whether these are just delusions. In fact, it suggests they're not, which is the dumbest idea anyone connected with the project ever had. There are a couple more in the final reel, which made me wonder if the script had been "improved" by a committee of priests. The devil really is in the detail, it seems. It's a pity, because these double vaults with a twist go close to ruining an otherwise impressive debut.